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Shadows of the Damned director teases 'movie-length' new game from new studio [update]
After revealing his new studio, Ovosonico, last summer, Shadows of the Damned director Massimo Guarini is ready to start teasing its first project. The game is described as "a rich emotional experience packaged in a movie-length time frame" – but it's still in a "very early prototype stage."The announcement derided "throw-away iPhone games and 40-hour long traditional productions," and noted that the studio is exploring "a reasonable price" for its first game. No platforms or launch windows or themes or ... well, much of anything else was revealed, but Ovosonico encouraged interested parties to keep an eye on its Twitter and Facebook pages for upcoming news.Update: We spoke with Massimo Guarini via email this afternoon for more info on the mystery project. He told us, "The game will deal with unusual subjects, something definitely unexplored in a teenage-driven market," before he added, "I can guarantee that you'll find lots of crazy ideas, strong emotions, original settings, [and an] unconventional approach to gameplay and storytelling." Beyond that, he wouldn't budge on game details.Guarini also hinted at digital distribution for the title, though he said, "We're not targeting iOS/mobile or freemium models right now. If we do it, we will focus on product quality, not on ensnaring people with addictive tricks." He said we'll likely see more from the still totally ambiguous project this August.
Joystiq Top 10 of 2011: Shadows of the Damned
This sojourn in hell inspires the most intense evangelism, and that makes me think nobody in EA's marketing department bothered to play Shadows of the Damned. Even those who acted as envoys for the game's off-kilter charms, those people who were unpaid but still rewarded, might have gotten stuck on the easy marquee description: "It's the unfathomable oddness of Suda 51, paired with Shinji Mikami sensibility and an Akira Yamaoka soundtrack!" The summation is accurate (if a bit unfair to the major input from design lead Massimo Guarini, who left Grasshopper Manufacture in 2011), but hardly a detailed message for those unfamiliar with star Japanese designers. At least Shadows of the Damned had no troubles conveying its obvious qualities: a surprising and properly grotesque vision of post-life limbo, a protagonist passionate to a fault and a hilarious skull-on-a-stick to guide him.
Shadows of the Damned director Guarini leaves Grasshopper, forms Ovosonico
Though the marquee names associated with Shadows of the Damned were Suda 51, Shinji Mikami, and Akira Yamaoka, it was Massimo Guarini who actually directed the stylish shooter for Grasshopper Manufacture. He'll have a chance to amend that crediting oversight with his new studio, the just revealed Ovosonico Productions. Grasshopper confirmed to us that Guarini has left Suda 51's camp-heavy dev house. GameSpot noticed the site and dug through its source code, which revealed the slogan "Games, Music, Films with an attitude" -- not exactly a surprise given Guarini's multi-disciplined media production past. The main site also characterizes the company's work as "The sound of bold ideas," ambiguously hinting at its future. It's not exactly a huge surprise that Guarini left, given the depressingly low initial sales numbers of the excellent Shadows of the Damned, but it is a surprise he's starting his own studio -- Guarini's worked for a variety of studios across the industry, originally getting his start at Ubisoft. It's currently unclear where Ovosonico is based, but we've followed up for more info.
